How Vision Almost Looked In Avengers 2

The Vision is a Marvel character with a lengthy history on the printed page. First appearing in 1940, he has, understandably, gone through some wardrobe and appearance changes over the ensuing decades, so when we found out he was going to appear on the big screen for the first time in Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, one question every fan wanted to know was what he was going to look like. Even that went through an evolution, and he almost looked like this.

The official Facebook page for Ryan Meinerding, who just so happens to be an artist and character designer and, oh yeah, the Head of Visual Development at a little place called Marvel Studios, shared this piece of concept art. This is just one of the Visions-that-could-have-been that were in play during production, and while stylistically this is relatively close to what appears on screen during Age of Ultron, there are some notable differences, chief among them the color and the glowing eyes. This one appears to be a bit simpler, a bit more stripped down, though it uses texture to drive home the synthetic nature of the character.

For sake of comparison, here’s how the character ultimately looked when he made his big screen debut (he has appeared in animated form on a couple of Marvel series and a direct-to-video movie).

Vision, played by Paul Bettany in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is the result of Tony Stark uploading J.A.R.V.I.S., also voiced by Bettany and who had been hiding inside the internet, into the synthetic, mostly vibranium body that Ultron intended for himself. Powered by one of the Infinity Stones, he plays a big part in defeating Ultron and his minions, and he also proves himself worthy by being able to pick up and wield Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, which is a big part of why, when Thor returns to Asgard to study up on the Infinity Stones, he says the one in Vision’s forehead is perfectly safe.

Though J.A.R.V.I.S. has been around for some time, the Vision is a newcomer to the MCU and likely to play a big role moving forward. We already know that he’ll be in Captain America: Civil War when that hits theaters on May 6, 2016, but beyond that his future is unknown. In the comics he has a romantic relationship with Scarlet Witch, who, played by Elizabeth Olsen, was also introduced in Age of Ultron. That could factor in. And, at least in the comics, he plays a big part in battling Thanos, so an appearance in the upcoming two-part Avengers: Infinity War seems like a safe bet. As you probably know, we’re unlikely to get much in the way of details from Marvel ahead of time, so we’ll just have to wait and see.